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Animal Crossing: New Horizons is nearly upon us, making this an excellent time to reflect on the loneliness and despair that inspired the series in the first place. Series creator Katsuya Eguchi has spoken openly about how the Animal Crossing games were originally inspired by the fact that he didn't have any friends when he started work at Nintendo, and how long hours in the office meant that he never got to see his kids. Cheery! Then there's Aya Kyogoku, Nintendo's secret weapon, who started work on Four Swords Adventure as one of the few women employed at the company before rising to through the ranks to direct Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and insisting that the studio hire a load more women. It's nice to think that these two wonderful creators have had such an impact on the trajectory of Nintendo, and that their struggles and trials have been turned into wonderful games. You'd think that, being fans of nonviolent games, we'd be all over Animal Crossing. We suspect, though, that New Horizons probably won't be the game for our family - at least not yet. Why? Because our daughter is only just learning to read, and until she's got a good handle on it, she won't get much from the series. We tried playing the original Animal Crossing with her on GameCube and it kind of bored her, which is weird considering that she's very happy to be read to when we're playing Pokemon. Apologies that this video didn't go up a few weeks ago, we ended up taking more time off over Christmas than we'd planned. We've got some fun new stuff coming over the next few months, though, so stay tuned! BretonStripes (http://twitter.com/bretonstriped) and Kotor (http://twitter.com/kotorcomics) Sources: https://www.wired.com/2014/03/animal-crossing-director/ http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2011/12/feature_celebrating_10_years_of_animal_crossing https://web.archive.org/web/20131017234121/http://www.edge-online.com/features/inside-story-animal-crossing/ https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2688/crossing_into_the_mainstream_.php https://animalcrossingworld.com/2015/07/watch-animal-crossing-director-aya-kyogoku-and-risa-tabata-chat-about-women-in-game-development-and-their-games-at-nintendo/